Opening trawl to explain the time jump:
The battlefield before Kalaman has been cleaved open with arcane fire. You have at last returned, having destroyed the floating city that the dragon army discovered in the Northern Wastes and sought to use to destroy Kalaman. Now you must defeat the Death Knight, Lord Soth, master of the mysterious and haunted Daargard Keep. Your travels have taught you much of this tragic figure. Cast out into the Shadowrealm for failing the gods, first murdering his wife and child out of jealousy and infidelity and then failing to prevent the Cataclysm that wreaked havoc on the world a millennia ago. He stands at the gates of Kalaman, bound by a fell pact with Takhisis, the evil dragon queen, to destroy her enemies and the free people of Kalaman. Soth descends upon a Death Dragon, a powerful corpse animated by its own bitterness and hatred…
Soth immediately unleashed a ball of cataclysmic fire that washed over the heroes on the rocky promontory from which they looked out across the blasted landscape. This punishment didn’t let up, as Asterius absorbed the brunt of the attacks to protect his friends. Soon Lord Soth landed and dismounted his dragon. The dragon took to the sky and swooped in to attack Fallon, while Sith went toe to toe with Asterius, battering the paladin with crushing blows. Asterius and Davgin made their own strong attacks, diminishing the Death Knight, and Gringle landed a devastating arrow attack. Fallon took claw and bite attacks from the dragon, barely staving off unconsciousness.
Finally Soth battered down Asterius, and as he lay on the ground the Dark Knight stabbed him with his terrible sword. Soth then went after Gringle. Fallon managed to raise Asterius and he hauled himself back to his feet. Soth brought down Gringle, slashing the goblin with his sword, then striking him as he lay dying on the ground. Gringle lay dying on the ground as Soth turned and pointed at Asterius, saying “Be gone, Solamnic scum!”
Asterius disappeared, finding himself banished to a pocket dimension. The Paladin immediately began healing himself. Meanwhile, Gringle expired on the ground.
At this money, as Fallon clung to life fighting the dragon, Davgin made his move, casting powerful magic that finally killed the Death Knight. With his concentration broken, Asterius reappeared, and the remaining heroes killed the dragon.
In the last precious moments, Asterius cast revivify on Gringle. They had won. Their forces routed the dragon army, and saved Kalaman.
After their adventures, Gringle retired, finally purchasing himself a property which he named Greenwood, and made himself Duke over. Davin opened a magic shop. Fallon journeyed and traveled, continuing to learn. And Asterius returned to the Solamnic knights, marshalling their forces to completely defeat the dragon armies…
GM Reflections
You may notice a dramatic time jump. I had another session where the players went back to Kalaman and discovered the massacred city council and they were about to follow Lord Sith into the catacombs when we decided that we were ready to be done.
My players got tired of this campaign, and honestly I did too. The railroad was too railroaded. My efforts to break out of this by adding in intrigue from Kingdoms & Warfare didn’t gel with the style of game that the players wanted to play (the system was essentially too complicated for them to easily grasp and not the experience they were interested in at this point).
So we discussed it, and decided to have a final battle to resolve the campaign. We leveled up their characters to twelve (which is the highest level session I’ve ever had thus far). I was surprised in some ways by how limited their power actually still was. Limitations on spell preparation still can make an impact in what is available to you in combat. I also picked a map with broken up terrain and lava, and added a dynamic effect—another first for me. It worked well in impacting their tactical choices.
I pulled punches in the fight. I probably could have banished Asterius earlier, but I was worried about a TPK. I thought the stakes were suitably high at the end with Gringle dying and Asterius gone. Then they were able to manage to bring Asterius back, and mop up, while maintaining the pacing. At no point did the fight feel like a slog as normal ones occasionally do, I think partly because of the legendary actions. I’ve run legendary monsters before, but not two at once, which was a lot to manage.
Overall, a fun session, but a campaign I’m glad to have finished.
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